


Two of Cups

by Selah



Series: Shinjitsu to Gensou [97]
Category: BUCK-TICK, Jrock
Genre: Band as Family, Gen, Past Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Platonic Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-31 18:57:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21150599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selah/pseuds/Selah
Summary: Yutaka has something he’s been keeping from the band. And then Hide finds out the truth.





	Two of Cups

**Author's Note:**

> timestamp: late 2016
> 
> The prose starts out dancing around the name, but yes, for the purposes of Shinjitsu to Gensou canon, Issay is not that likable and this story does nothing to sugarcoat that, so if you're an Issay stan, back out now. :p
> 
> No supernatural tag because they're all quite mundane human. And yes, my Yuta is _very_ straight, but in a healthy way?

Yutaka didn't bother opening his eyes, smiling a little at the familiar brush of fingers through his hair. The weather was perfect – not too hot, not too cold, not too humid, perfectly sunny with a fresh breeze – and he'd finally found the perfect place for a little nap. Moving was absolutely not on his agenda for any time soon.

“Yuta,” that familiar voice murmured, fingers catching and tugging a little.

“Mm ... nope.”

“I haven't even asked for anything yet,” Hide teased.

“If it involves moving, I'm not interested,” Yutaka countered.

“Not even if I say Acchan's offered to pay?” his best friend asked.

Against his better judgement, Yutaka carefully opened his eyes to peer up at Hide. The guitarist was smiling, familiar warmth in dark eyes; whatever mischief he was planning, Atsushi really had offered up his wallet for the event. But did Yutaka really want in on whatever this was?

“Pay for what?” he asked, leaning into the hand that had gone still in his hair.

“Dinner, drinks, the usual.”

“All of us?” he asked, closing his eyes again.

“All of us.”

A muted sigh. Didn't sound _too_ terrible. It was a little early for dinner just then, but worse than that, Yutaka couldn't tell which 'usual' Hide meant. Imai had just hit his longest sober streak yet, so it could be as simple as just dinner and a bottle of wine. On the other hand, they had done a lot of crazy things over the years.

“Ani's already said yes, if that helps.”

It didn't; Takashi would say yes to just about anything as long as he didn't have to pay for it.

“_That person_ won't be there,” Hide added after another moment of silence. The way he emphasized the words, Yutaka's eyes shot open as he sat up to glower at his best friend.

“Don't look at me like that. I know what happened between you two. You should have told me yourself, but ... I guess I can understand why you didn't.”

“Who _did_ then?” he asked, frowning; he hadn't told _anybody_ about that night.

“Who do you think?” Hide countered, quirking an eyebrow at him. “I cold-cocked him, by the way, and I'll do it again if he ever tries to worm his way back into your life.”

Yutaka gaped at his best friend for a long minute, trying to find the right words. On the one hand, it wasn't like Hide's reaction was a surprise. On the other hand, this was exactly why he hadn't told anyone.

“Come on, have dinner with us. Before Acchan does something even more outlandish, like buying you a car,” his best friend said, a gently coaxing smile curving his lips.

“You _do_ know that's the opposite of an incentive for me to actually move, right?”

“Sure you want to trust Acchan's taste in cars like that, though?”

Laughing, Yutaka had to concede that Hide had a point. The car itself would probably be fine, but there was no telling what sorts of 'extras' Atsushi would deem necessary. Or what sort of custom interior, or worse, _exterior_ the man would pick for him.

“All right, all right, fine. Twenty minutes to shower and change?” he asked

“You're fine the way you are, but yeah, sure,” Hide replied, nodding. “I'll be here.”

Yutaka still might have preferred a nap, but if the story of that night was now circulating his bandmates ... he needed to put a lid on it, before any more trouble could come from it.

* * *

Yutaka wanted to be surprised when Takashi grabbed him almost as soon as he stepped into the restaurant, tugging him away from the others. But that look on his face ... he knew what was coming even before the words left his brother's mouth.

“Yuta! Why didn't you _tell_ me?” his brother hissed.

“... Hide told you?”

“I'm your brother, Yuta,” the older man grumbled. “How could you keep this from me? Especially when ... you know what he and I did....”

“I didn't tell anyone, Ani. I just wanted to put it out of my mind, forget it had ever happened. Anyway, the next day he was acting like he hadn't done a thing, so I didn't see the point,” Yuta replied, shrugging.

“Yuta....”

“Ani when have I _ever_ liked anyone you dated or just fucked around with?” he said, shrugging off his brother's worried face.

“Yuta, that's is _not_ the point! I'm your brother, I'm supposed to be protecting you, not....”

“Really, Ani, I'm fine. I don't care what you two did; it doesn't bother me,” he lied, trying to move past his brother to rejoin their friends. He really should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

“Higuchi Yutaka,” Takashi started in that familiar Older Brother voice, grabbing Yutaka's elbow.

“I said I'm fine,” Yutaka snapped, jerking his arm free a bit more forcefully than he had originally intended.

They were garnering attention now; he could feel curious eyes practically burning into his skin. Wishing he had some better barrier against those gazes, Yutaka changed direction to hurry back out onto the street. This was exactly why he hadn't told anyone, dammit!

“Yuta!”

He ignored the voice behind him as he quickened his steps, throwing up an arm to try to hail a cab. So of course he couldn't actually get one to stop for him before Hide caught up with him.

“Dammit, Yuta, don't ignore me.”

It was the wrong thing to say just then, Yutaka whirling on his best friend with every intention of punching him. He didn't actually manage to connect, and that only made him angrier.

“Fuck off, Hoshino!” he snapped. “Never asked you to get into my business!”

“I'm your best friend; of course I'm all up in your business,” Hide countered, dancing away from a second punch. “So are we going back, or are we going somewhere else?”

“Do what you want,” Yutaka said, turning his back on the man to storm off up the street.

If he couldn't get a cab to stop, there was a subway station not too far from here; he'd use that. Better at home than being out in this mood. A plan that failed to account for how quickly his best friend was able to catch up with him again, arms thrown over Yutaka's shoulders as Hide dragged him to a stop.

“I'm sorry I didn't talk to you first, Yu-chan. I just assumed ... he's your brother, I assumed he knew. Which was stupid of me, I get that. I'm sorry, I am. But I'm also not letting you off this hook so easy, Yuta. One way or the other, we're going to talk about this.”

“There's nothing left to say,” he muttered, trying to shrug off the other man to no avail.

“Bullshit. You really just want me to take that guy's word for how things went down that night? Cuz for the record? Already don't believe him. So you might as well tell me what _really_ happened, yeah?”

“Not how this works,” Yutaka countered with another huff. “Let me go.”

“Not 'til you agree to talk to me, Yuta,” Hide insisted.

“Hide....”

“Agree to talk to me or else I'll have to do something drastic. Like getting Hisashi involved, and you _know_ that man has no shame.”

Yutaka sighed, slumping back against his best friend. He could only imagine what Hisashi might decide to do in this situation; the other guitarist really was the most shameless, irrepressible person Yutaka had ever met. A truth that did not make him feel even the slightest bit better about his options.

“Hide? Yuta?”

Of course Atsushi had come out after them. If anything, the real surprise was that the singer hadn't gotten to them sooner.

“Everything okay?” Atsushi asked, worry creasing his brow.

“Everything's fine,” Hide insisted, still wrapped around Yutaka's shoulders not unlike a stole. Or a sloth. “Yuta's just playing hard to get, ne?”

Trapped in a cage of words. Yutaka elbowed Hide, but it didn't do much good.

“Fine. _Fine_. One drink,” he grumbled, trying again to free himself from Hide's arms. “But don't go getting ideas. I'm not agreeing to anything else.”

“Hey, I meant what I said,” Hide said, huffing against Yutaka's ear. “I'll drag all of them into this if I have to.”

Unable to properly scowl at the man still latched onto him from behind, Yutaka instead turned narrowed eyes on Atsushi. Who looked a little too ... something. Intense? No, that wasn't quite the right word. Apologetic? But why would he –?

“Oh my god, did you tell _everyone_?!” Yutaka shouted, taking another swipe at Hide.

“What? No! I just said if anyone invited that guy out with us tonight, I'd have to kill him,” Hide countered, almost a squeak, even as he hugged Yutaka even tighter. “Well and that I wasn't going to explain why in a group email because I wasn't.”

“I had intended to ask,” Atsushi said, one eyebrow arched. “Yuta?”

Meaning it was his own fault now that Atsushi was starting to put the pieces together. Another huff, another jab of his elbow in Hide's direction, and then Yutaka tugged on his jacket a second.

“Not talking about it in some bar,” he muttered as he tried to pull free of lamprey-like arms.

“Dinner then and we'll decamp to Hisashi's? He has the superior wet bar,” Atsushi suggested.

He could still say no, right? He could always say no. of course Hide wasn't the sort to make idle threats, either. Sighing heavily, he conceded defeat with a nod. Maybe it was time to let this secret out of the bag.

* * *

Despite Yutaka's lingering unease and apprehension, dinner with his bandmates was surprisingly normal. To his surprise, no one even brought up Hide's email blast, though he couldn't help wondering how much of that was in the tone Atsushi had used to announce that after dinner they were all going to Hisashi's place for drinks. Especially when Imai's only response to that announcement was a momentarily arched eyebrow and a snort.

Yutaka still spent the meal on pins and needles, waiting for someone to ask the questions he didn't want to answer. He couldn't tell if he was just being paranoid or if his brother really was watching him through the whole meal. Probably just paranoia, since no one else was saying anything about it.

At the end of dinner, it briefly occurred to him to try to sneak out on his own. On the other hand, he didn't know what ditching his bandmates would push Hide into doing next. Not anything good, most likely. Swallowing another lump of apprehension, he let his friend latch onto him again as they walked out into the night together. He could do this; it would be fine. Really.

The five of them piled into a single cab, Atsushi in the front, and for a brief moment it was almost like they were kids again. The hair was shorter now, they weren't actually drunk yet, but the level of foolishness felt the same, even down to Hisashi tripping over the curb as they got out of the cab at his building.

“Careful! Fall at your age, you might break a hip!”

“Fuck you, Hide,” Hisashi said, casually flipping him off while Atsushi paid their fare. “I'm not that old!”

Yutaka had to bite back a laugh; it really was just like old times, even if the exact joke was different.

What wasn't so like old times was the way Hisashi, not Hide, manhandled Yutaka into sitting on his couch, the guitarist even going so far as to perch on his coffee table to keep Yutaka boxed in.

“All right, I don't know what happened with Issay and if you don't want to talk details, fine, but when Hide says he will murder the guy if he has to see him again at one of our band dinners when he's always been welcome before now.... And it's obviously something to do with you, Yuta, don't think I didn't notice your email wasn't in the list. So spill, yeah?”

“... this is exactly why I didn't want any of you knowing,” Yutaka huffed, mumbling a quick thanks for the drink Atsushi pushed into his hands. “What happened ... it's nothing I can't handle just fine on my own. It doesn't need to affect anything else. I'm an adult.”

“Our band dinners are a safe space; we agreed after Acchan's second divorce,” Hide said, taking the space next to Yutaka on the couch. “And after what he said to me? Yeah, if I have to see him in a non-professional setting, I _will_ punch him in the throat again.”

“Hide....”

“Hey, last chance to spill on your own, Yuta, or I start asking Hide to tell all,” Hisashi said.

“And you know I will,” Hide added. “In the same level of detail that he relayed it to me in the first place.”

“... what detail?” Yutaka scoffed. “Nothing actually happened.”

“That's not how he tells it,” Hide said, sipping his drink. “Why do you think I punched him?”

Another huff and Yutaka dropped back against the back of the couch. He still didn't want to talk about this, but at the same time ... he needed to know what Issay was saying behind his back. Inasmuch as he was clearly not going to be able to do that without his whole band involved, well....

“Nothing happened,” Yutaka insisted, toying with his glass as he kept explaining. “He tried to proposition me. When I told him I wasn't interested, he said I'd change my mind with a few drinks. I told him I wouldn't and then refused to accept any more drinks from him. Not sure how long he kept trying, but the whole thing probably wasn't even half an hour. He went his way in a huff, I went home. And that was the last I heard from or about him until Ani mentioned the two of them had hooked up for some casual sex.”

“I should have punched him in the dick,” Hide grumbled. “I punched him because, the way he told it, you'd gotten drunk on your own and he'd taken advantage of that to get you in bed with him. This ... this is worse. What the hell was he even thinking, telling me any of this?”

“I am absolutely positive he was trying to make you jealous,” Takashi said with a little shake of his head. “A sort of 'look at me, I got what you wanted and you didn't' thing.”

Between Hisashi's snort and Atsushi's eye roll, Yutaka couldn't help a little chuckle. It was hardly a secret that he and Hide were close, just as he was well aware some people assumed they were more than just friends. But fangirl perceptions aside, Hide had never tried to get Yutaka to give him more than he felt comfortable offering. So they flirted on stage and teased in interviews and kept the illusion alive without it once risking their very real affection and friendship.

“I won't lie, Issay's been a dear friend for a long time,” Takashi added, “but the man's also an ass. Who has never once, in forty years, believed me when I told him Yuta's straight.”

“For the record, hearing that he isn't actually an opportunistic rapist, just wishes he was? Doesn't make me feel any better about things,” Hide said, scooting closer and tucking an arm around Yutaka's shoulders. “Glad you didn't actually go through that, but I still won't hesitate to punch him if he comes nosing around again.”

“... thanks?” Yutaka ventured with a little huff of not quite laughter.

“You're my best friend,” Hide said, brushing a quick kiss to the top of Yutaka's head. “I'm always going to defend your honor.”

“He's not the only one,” Takashi added. “And so help me, Acchan, if you –.”

“Not going to be a problem,” Atsushi said with a little shake of his head. “He's burned too many bridges. And anyway, the person I'm seeing now wouldn't like it.”

“You're seeing someone? Who?” Yutaka asked, hoping to derail everyone off of him.

“A fetus,” Hisashi said, snorting as he got up.

“He's not _that_ young,” Atsushi protested, laughing. “And don't think I haven't noticed the way you look at him when you think he won't notice, Hisashi.”

“I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about,” the other man said, sitting down on the other couch with a drink of his own. “I have leather pants older than your little boy toy. Not interested. What do you even talk about, his school work? Contributing to the delinquency of a minor, shame on you, Acchan.”

“He's not _that_ young, you pervert.”

“You're fucking someone younger than your career and _I'm_ the pervert?” Hisashi countered.

As usual, once someone got Hisashi and Atsushi bickering, the two couldn't really stop. Shifting a little to better snuggle into Hide's side, Yutaka sipped his drink and closed his eyes. Maybe they would even bicker long enough for everyone to forget why they had come here in the first place? All right, probably not, but it was a nice thought while it lasted. And either way, by the time they wound down for the night, at least no one would be likely to want to talk to him about Issay anymore. As far as Yutaka was concerned, the less he had to deal with that man going forward, the better.

* * *

Hide couldn't help a little snort at the realization that Yutaka had fallen asleep on him. Again. It was a good thing they were surrounded by friends; someone else might have gotten the wrong idea about them. Carding fingers through short hair, he wondered if he should be waking his friend or not. Wouldn't be the first time they had stayed over with Hisashi. Doubtless wouldn't be the last, either.

“... you know this is why Issay thinks you're pining for Yuta,” Takashi said softly, their other two bandmates currently in a heated bicker over something Hide hadn't cared to listen to in the first place.

“Huh?”

“That,” the drummer said, gesturing vaguely with his bottle.

“Ani....”

“I'm not judging. But you have to admit, from the outside, it looks like, well....”

“You know it's possible to have a tender, loving relationship with a person that's completely platonic, right?” Hide said, rolling his eyes. “If Yuta were any more straight, we could use him as a level.”

Takashi snorted, but the drummer was also grinning.

“I didn't say Issay was right to think that way, but come on....”

“... are you _trying_ to make me even angrier with that puffed up dickhead?” Hide grumbled, scowling at the drummer again.

“People see what they want to see,” Takashi said, finishing his beer. “You two going to stay here then?” he added, loud enough to catch the attention of the other two.

“Eh? Ah, Ani, are you going home then?” Atsushi asked.

“We resolved the mystery of Hide's death threat, Yuta's asleep, and I have dogs at home probably wondering why I haven't returned yet.”

“Yeah, no, go home,” Hisashi agreed with a nod. “Guest room's clean, do you need help shifting him, Hide?”

“Never have before,” Hide said, slipping out from under his friend before scooping the bassist up in his arms. “Thanks for dinner, Acchan. And bring your fetus to our next live, yeah? Gotta be sure he's actually worthy of you.”

“He's not a fetus!” Atsushi protested, but as expected the man was laughing. Meaning even with the evening's earlier heavy subject, already things were back to normal between the five of them.

He was just about to climb into bed himself when Hisashi lightly knocked on the door frame.

“Hey, I've got an early morning meeting about a thing with a guy, but I'll close your door, so don't worry, yeah? Stay as long as you like, help yourself to whatever. Good coffee's in the panda canister.”

“Meeting a guy about a thing, huh?” Hide teased, grinning. “All right, well, if we make pancakes, I'll leave some in the fridge for you.”

“Bless you,” Hisashi said, laughter twinkling in his eyes. “Good night.”

Making a mental note to actually talk Yutaka into making pancakes in the morning, Hide checked his phone one last time. Last thing he wanted was his phone disturbing Yutaka's sleep for no good reason.

And as for Issay ... the man could think whatever he wanted, Hide didn't care. He knew the truth.

“Good night,” he whispered to his sleeping friend, spooning up against his back.

He knew what they had and it was all he could want.

**Author's Note:**

> two parting notes:  
1\. As I've completely exhausted my fic posting queue now, I'm starting my NaNoWriMo posting break a week early. I know I'd promised vampire!San fic for this month and I'm sorry it's not happening, but said fic will come out next month. Probably. But it'll be the only fic posted in November because NaNo. If you'd like to know more, you can track me down on Dreamwidth ([hitokage](https://hitokage.dreamwidth.org/)), Tumblr ([yuuana](https://yuuana.tumblr.com/)), and/or Twitter ([emorenosagt](https://twitter.com/emorenosagt)) to find out what I'm up to.
> 
> 2\. Can you believe it? We're creeping up on Shinjitsu to Gensou #100! I feel like it should be something BIG but I don't know what and don't want to accidentally hit it, so trying to plan now. Open to suggestions if there's someone(s) you're especially wanting to see.


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